Home Office Caseworker Liverpool - Assessment Day Advice/Tips

Truegho

I am due to attend an assessment day for Home Office AO Caseworker in Liverpool in a few days time. This will consist of a classroom-based written test, and if this is successfully passed, there will then be a competency based interview on Collaborating and Partnering.

I was just wondering if any of you have ever attended this assessment day and, if so, could you give me some tips/advice etc? I would especially welcome any advice on the classroom based test, as I have heard that is quite tricky to pass.

I hope to hear from you..

SuperPineapple

I did a Home Office AO Caseworker assessment day back in November 2017 and I apparently passed the test with a fairly high mark. This was for the Immigration and Visas office.

I saw your post while browsing here and I just had to make an account to reply!

The test starts with a brief of how the work of a caseworker should be done which you must then use to make decisions on a number of example cases and you're scored based on how accurate you are to the brief in each scenario.

For immigration and visas this was basically going through example visa applications and you're scored firstly on giving a correct answer, either denying or accepting the application, then you're scored on whether you denied at the earliest possible opportunity in the process and finally you're scored on being able to provide the correct justification for your acceptance / denial.

I would say a key tip is reading everything carefully, some of the examples are designed specifically to trip you up if you're just trying to rush through and answer everything as quick as possible. You can't really prepare for the written test but all the answers you need are provided as part of the brief you're given.

For the competency based interview you should refer to the key competencies that are in the job brief on your Civil Service job application, they'll be wanting examples of times where you have met those key competencies in your previous experience. This is the thing you should prepare for, I slipped up myself on this where I didn't quite provide all the evidence they were looking for, but this is partly due to the fact I've had a fairly brief working history.

Also big big tip, which should be a given but people do forget, bring a form of photo ID to the assessment with you. At the time I didn't have one so I went through the lengthy process of getting a passport before I could continue my application after passing the assessment centre. If you don't have photo ID it becomes a lengthy nightmare of sending the documents out to them and waiting even longer to hear back from them.

Truegho

SuperPineapple wrote: »

I did a Home Office AO Caseworker assessment day back in November 2017 and I apparently passed the test with a fairly high mark. This was for the Immigration and Visas office.

I saw your post while browsing here and I just had to make an account to reply!

The test starts with a brief of how the work of a caseworker should be done which you must then use to make decisions on a number of example cases and you're scored based on how accurate you are to the brief in each scenario.

For immigration and visas this was basically going through example visa applications and you're scored firstly on giving a correct answer, either denying or accepting the application, then you're scored on whether you denied at the earliest possible opportunity in the process and finally you're scored on being able to provide the correct justification for your acceptance / denial.

I would say a key tip is reading everything carefully, some of the examples are designed specifically to trip you up if you're just trying to rush through and answer everything as quick as possible. You can't really prepare for the written test but all the answers you need are provided as part of the brief you're given.

For the competency based interview you should refer to the key competencies that are in the job brief on your Civil Service job application, they'll be wanting examples of times where you have met those key competencies in your previous experience. This is the thing you should prepare for, I slipped up myself on this where I didn't quite provide all the evidence they were looking for, but this is partly due to the fact I've had a fairly brief working history.

Also big big tip, which should be a given but people do forget, bring a form of photo ID to the assessment with you. At the time I didn't have one so I went through the lengthy process of getting a passport before I could continue my application after passing the assessment centre. If you don't have photo ID it becomes a lengthy nightmare of sending the documents out to them and waiting even longer to hear back from them.

Thank you for the advice.

crackerberry

Try to prepare at least a couple of example answers for collaborating and partnering. They rarely make it as simple as saying tell us about a time you had to collaborate and partner. Instead they'll say this is a question about collaborating and partnering - now can you tell me about a time when you worked as a team on a project to a strict deadline etc.



Look at the job description again and at the key criteria - this can give you an idea as to how they might word the questions.


Look at the Civil Service framework. This lists the effective (and non effective) behaviours expected at each grade. Try to provide examples of each effective behaviour into your example. This is what they'll be listening for and marking your answer on- you get marks for each one you include and on how well you cover it. Look at the expected behaviours for the grade above that you're applying for too and consider if you can pitch your answer to cover a couple of required behaviours at that level too.


Use the STAR approach to structure your reply.



Once you've prepared your examples practice them. I always read them out loud and enough times until I can recite my answer seamlessly. Usually you're allowed to take notes in- I have my entire answer written down in bullet form. I don't usually need to refer to it in the interview but it's useful to have incase you dry up at any point/wish to check you've covered every point you wanted to. Check with them that you can refer to notes though.



When I'm practicing my answers out loud, once I'm at the "can recite it seamlessly" stage I time my answer - I aim for an answer taking 4 - 5 minutes. Any shorter and it may be that you haven't covered all points (as per the framework) or in enough detail.



If how they word the question doesn't match any of your prepared examples, don't panic. In these instances it's better just to stick to your prepared answer, rather than trying to wing it with a reply off the top of your head.